A Prophet In His Hometown

Good morning to all of you.

My name's Tommy.

I'm the rector of Church of the Advent,

and so I'm delighted to welcome you here.

And I know that this has been an especially heavy week

in our community and in our city with the plane crash.

I know many of you are struggling

with job insecurity right now,

and I'm deeply sorry for that.

And I think that you're in the right place.

I'm glad that we can gather together

to worship, to pray, to hear God's Word preached.

I'm just thankful to be here.

There's nowhere I'd rather be when things are challenging.

We wanna open God's Word together,

and we're gonna look at this passage in Luke chapter four.

And it raises this question of, you know,

have you ever wondered what it would be like

to be able to go to church

and to hear Jesus preach the sermon?

You know, to get to this part of the service,

Hillary stands up, she reads the text for the day,

and then Jesus comes up,

and Jesus is about to preach a sermon.

You know, a lot of people think about that,

and I've actually heard people say,

you know, I'm not a Christian,

but if I could actually just meet Jesus face-to-face,

if Jesus would appear to me face-to-face,

and if Jesus were to just appear to me and say,

it's all true, I'm the Savior, I'm the Messiah,

then I would believe it.

But I just need some proof to get me there.

And I've, in earlier times in my life,

have thought the same thing.

And the question we wanna ask this morning is,

is that really the case?

Would it really be that cut and dry?

Because what we see in our gospel reading

makes us question that.

In Luke chapter four, Jesus stands up,

he preaches a sermon,

and essentially the through line of his sermon,

the main idea is, I am God's Messiah,

and I have been sent to the world

as a fulfillment of God's promises.

And Jesus preaches that sermon,

and it doesn't result in mass conversions.

This sermon almost gets him killed.

And so we're gonna look more at this,

we're gonna talk about what it means for us.

We're gonna look at the context, the meaning,

and then ultimately the implications.

So let's pray and ask God to help us

as we open God's word together.

Lord, we thank you for your word,

and we ask now that your Holy Spirit

would illuminate your word.

And we pray that through your ministry to us,

through your word,

you would do your work in us.

We are all here desperately needing

what only you can provide.

And we pray that you would do this

in the name of your son, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

So first, I wanna catch you up

and help you understand the context

of what's going on here.

By this point in Jesus's ministry,

he's been baptized,

he's been tempted in the wilderness,

he has begun his public ministry,

he's been doing some things in Capernaum

that have earned him some notoriety.

So there's a buzz circulating about this rabbi,

Jesus, and the amazing things that he can do.

And so it's a big deal

when Jesus finally returns

to his hometown of Nazareth,

which is kind of a backwater town,

mostly insignificant.

Not on anybody's radar

is a place where anything of any import would happen.

So Jesus comes Sabbath,

like every good Jew,

he goes to the synagogue.

And when people begin to realize

that Jesus himself is the one

who's gonna give the message,

they're excited.

And so people pack in,

and they're craning their necks,

and they're dying to know what he's gonna say.

So Jesus takes the scroll from the attendant.

This is what they used to do when it was time.

It's a lot like what we do today.

He takes the scroll,

and he unrolls it to this place in Isaiah,

Isaiah chapter 61,

Isaiah 61 · chapter mention

and then he reads these words.

The spirit of the Lord is upon me

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

Now this is an amazing passage.

It's mostly Isaiah 61,

but also a little bit taken from Isaiah 58.

But it essentially lays out

the entire mission of God's Messiah.

That's what anointed one means.

It means the Messiah.

And it lays out his mission.

The Messiah's gonna come,

and he's gonna bring good news to the poor.

He's gonna bring about the return of exiles from captivity.

He's gonna bring sight to the blind.

He's gonna bring liberation for the oppressed.

And at this time in history,

the Jews placed an enormous amount of hope

in this passage.

They interpreted it according to what they believed

they most needed.

The Messiah's gonna come,

he's gonna overthrow the Romans.

He's gonna vindicate Israel.

He's gonna restore us to our former glory.

He's gonna be from the line of David.

And so when he comes,

it's gonna be like the good old days

when David was our king,

the high point in their history.

So Jesus reads this passage.

Everybody, the tension just goes up in the room.

Everybody's hyped.

Everybody's excited.

And Jesus sits down and begins to preach.

Everyone's craning their necks.

And Luke gives us the essence of his message.

When you see a summary like this,

it's essentially a summary of Jesus's sermon.

And here's Jesus's sermon main idea.

Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

So that's the main idea of his sermon.

Jesus begins to explain to them

how he is the fulfillment of this messianic prophecy.

He is the one that Israel has been waiting for.

He says, the time has come, the kingdom is here,

and I am that kingdom.

And look at how the people respond.

At first, it seems like the sermon's going really well.

He has them eating out of his hand, right?

They're all, and they start to nod their heads,

and it says they're speaking favorably about him,

and they're nudging one another and saying,

this is absolutely amazing.

But then things take a turn.

Someone recognizes them.

They say, aren't you Joseph's son?

And all of a sudden, the mood in the room begins to shift,

and people begin to realize, oh, this is that Jesus

who is from here.

And people say, I remember watching you run around

as a snot-nosed kid.

I remember seeing you working next to your dad

in the shop, fixing things, and covered in sweat

and sawdust.

And they begin to realize that this isn't some far-off,

exalted rabbi.

This is that Jesus, Joseph's son, Mary's son.

And then the whole thing begins to take a turn,

and Jesus senses what's about to come,

the very next question out of their mouths.

He knows what they're thinking, and he anticipates it.

He says in verse 23, doubtless, you know,

now that you're doubting this, now that you're doubting me,

doubtless you're gonna quote to me this proverb.

Physician, heal yourself.

What we have heard you did at Capernaum,

do here in your hometown as well.

In other words, Jesus says, I know what you're thinking.

You want me to prove it.

You want me to do some miraculous sign.

You want me to heal somebody.

You want me to do what I did in Capernaum.

You want me to do that here and prove

that I am who I say I am.

They want to see a show.

And here's where we see Jesus's incredible boldness.

It'd be very tempting in this moment to just say,

okay, here you go.

And you just kind of do a miracle.

Is that enough?

You want to see more?

But that's not what he does.

He's not trying to win a popularity contest.

He's a prophet.

And he's going to speak truth whether they like it or not.

And so first he says this.

He says, truly I say to you,

no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.

In other words, when it comes to recognizing

true prophets who have been sent from God,

Israel does not have the best track record.

So why would anyone think that these people

would be able to recognize God's own son,

even if he comes, stands in front of them,

and says directly exactly who he is?

He says, we don't have a great track record

of recognizing true prophets when they come.

And then he reminds them of two events from their past.

Now these are sore subjects for Israelites.

He says, you know, there was a time

when the great prophet Elijah,

during a famine in Israel, many died.

Many died from the famine.

And there were many widows left alone.

And he's like, but do you remember what happened?

God only sent Elijah to bless a woman in Zarephath.

All these other people died.

And then his successor, Elisha, he says,

though many in Israel had leprosy,

God only sent Elisha to heal a Syrian named Naaman.

And we say, well, what does this mean?

It seems like a non-sequitur,

but in fact, it's not at all a non-sequitur.

The widow in Zarephath, she was poor, dirt poor.

She was also a Gentile.

She's a spiritual outsider.

She's a racial and ethnic outsider.

She's a heretic and an idol worshiper.

And he says, remember that time

when all those people were struggling?

God only sent the prophet Elijah to her.

And then he says, remember the time

that he sent Elisha to Naaman?

Well, Naaman wasn't poor.

He was very wealthy.

Also a Gentile.

He was a foreign military commander

who had actually fought against Israel.

He was also an idol worshiper.

And he was a leper.

So Jesus is reminding these people

of times when, although there was

plenty of legitimate need,

plenty of need among the Israelites,

God sent his prophets to help Gentiles

instead of Israelites.

And you gotta understand,

if you're a first century Jew

and you live in a place like Nazareth

and you see Gentiles all around

and you're very concerned about

keeping yourself separate from the Gentiles

and you hear Jesus saying this,

this is deeply offensive.

The Jews had always imagined God's Messiah

coming to vindicate them

over and above the Gentiles.

And Jesus is reminding them of times

in their past when God did something

very different.

He actually sent his prophets

to the Gentiles instead of the Israelites.

So this is a slap in the face

to their pride as people.

And it says in verse 28,

when they heard these things,

all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.

So they literally drive Jesus

out of the synagogue.

They drive him out of the town.

They drive him up to the edge of a cliff

and they intend to throw him off the cliff

and kill him.

But Jesus is able to mysteriously

pass through their midst

and he goes away to Capernaum.

Now in order to understand this,

we have to understand

that every single thing

that Jesus is saying

is a continuation of his sermon

on Isaiah chapter 61.

Isaiah 61 · chapter mention

He does not get derailed

by their skepticism

and go in a different direction.

All of this is expounding

upon Isaiah 61.

God has sent his Messiah Jesus

into the world

to bring good news to the poor,

return for the exiles,

sight to the blind,

liberation for the oppressed.

But here's the point

that Jesus is making.

Unless you recognize

that you are spiritually poor,

the coming of Jesus

is going to be irrelevant.

Unless you recognize

that you are right now

a spiritual exile,

the coming of Jesus

is not going to be good news.

Unless you recognize

that you right now

are spiritually blind,

Jesus has nothing to offer you.

Unless you recognize

that you are in fact

spiritually possessed,

spiritually oppressed

by death,

by sin,

by the demonic,

the liberation of Jesus,

the freedom that he offers

is meaningless.

Unless you recognize your need

and unless you're willing

to look to Jesus,

he has nothing to offer.

And this is a slap in the face

to the Israelites

because they always assumed

that the Messiah

was going to come

for them only.

But Jesus is saying this,

God does not send

his Savior

to a people group.

He does not send

his Messiah

to the Jews.

He does not send

his Messiah

to the Gentiles.

He does not send

his Messiah

only to the poor.

He does not send

his Messiah

to the wealthy.

He sends his Savior

only to those

who truly know

they need a Savior.

Whether they are Jew,

Gentile, rich, poor,

morally upright,

morally bankrupt.

He sends his Savior

only to those

who know they need

a Savior.

And this becomes

very clear

in the next chapter

in Luke.

The religious leaders

are scandalized

when they see Jesus,

who's this respectable rabbi,

eating with the very

worst kind of people.

In Luke chapter 5,

Luke 5 · chapter mention

they see him eating

with sinners

and tax collectors.

sinners.

And they're scandalized.

And Jesus responds

this way.

He says,

those who are well

have no need

of a physician.

You don't go to the doctor

when you're well.

You don't value

the doctor

when you're well.

You don't seek out

the doctor

when you're well.

It's those who are sick.

He says,

I have come

not to call

the righteous,

but sinners

to repentance.

And this really brings

us to the point.

At the beginning,

we talked about

people who think,

if I could just

hear Jesus

stand up in front of me

and say directly to me

that I am God's Messiah,

if Jesus would do that,

then I would believe

because I would have proof.

But here we see

in Luke chapter 4

Luke 4 · chapter mention

that that is

far from the truth.

It's not that simple.

Jesus does that

very thing.

He stands up in front

of a crowd of people

and says,

I am God's Messiah.

And they reject him.

That's because

the primary obstacle

to faith

is not intellectual.

Those of us who think,

if I could just

have some proof,

it is not intellectual.

It is spiritual.

These people

want a champion.

They want a political hero.

They want somebody

to make them feel proud

to be Israelites.

They want somebody

to stand up

to the Romans.

The last thing they want

is a savior

because that means

that they are

the sort of people

who need saving.

And that's the rub

for most of us

if we're really honest

is that fundamentally

down deep

we don't actually

believe that.

These people

are blinded

by their own pride

so they can't recognize

Jesus for who he is

even when he's standing

right in front of them.

You know,

this is like the story

of Joy Davidman.

She was a poet.

She was a committed atheist.

At one point in her life

she joined

the Communist Party

because she thought

that that would offer

the kind of meaning

and focus on justice

that mattered to her

and she says this

about her atheism.

She says,

of course I thought

atheism was true

but I hadn't given

quite enough attention

to developing

the proof of it.

Someday when the children

grow older

I'd work it out.

So she's like,

I'm sure there's no God.

I don't really,

can't get there intellectually

but one of these days

I'll sit down

and I'll do my homework

but I already know

there's no God.

And she was very confident

about that.

And she marries a man

named Bill

and Bill is a workaholic.

He is chronically unfaithful.

He's an alcoholic.

He's kind of a train wreck.

And one day

Bill calls

from his New York office.

He calls Joy

and he's in the midst

of a nervous breakdown.

And from the phone conversation

she's deeply worried

that he's gonna take

his own life.

And he says he's

in the middle of a breakdown.

He doesn't know what to do

and then he hangs up the phone.

And then for the entire next day

she's frantically calling

the New York office

trying to get through,

trying to find out

what happened to him

and she can't get through

and she has no idea

if he's alive or dead.

And by nightfall

that next night

she recalls

there's nothing to do

but wait

and see if he turns up

alive or dead.

So she has no idea

if her husband

is even still alive.

And so she talks

about that night.

She puts her children

to sleep

and then she just waits.

And here's what she writes

about what happens next.

In that silence

something happened.

For the first time

in my life,

Joy writes,

I felt helpless.

For the first time

my pride

was forced to admit

that I was not calm

after all.

That I was not

the master of my fate

and the captain

of my soul.

All my defenses,

all the walls

of arrogance

and cockiness

and self-love

behind which

I had hidden

from God

went down momentarily

and God came in.

It's like for this

brief moment

she feels utterly helpless.

Her walls go down

and in that moment

she says,

God came in.

There was a person

with me

in that room

directly present

to my consciousness.

A person so real

that all my previous life

was by comparison

a mere shadow play.

And I myself

was more alive

than I had ever been.

It was like waking

from sleep.

Now of course

God had been there

all along.

Jesus had been there

all along.

But it wasn't

until she felt

her own helplessness.

It wasn't until

that illusion

of her self-sufficiency

crumbled.

It wasn't until

that moment

that she became aware

of the presence

of God

with her.

That is what enabled

her to recognize

Jesus who was standing

right in front of her.

And it's this experience

that leads her

to convert to Christianity

which profoundly changed

her life.

And by the way

the epilogue

is that after

Bill eventually

survived that night

but he eventually

left her for her cousin

and they got divorced

and so Joy went on

to marry C.S. Lewis.

And she's the wife

that Lewis loved

and writes about.

And this story

of Joy's conversion

I think shows us

something extremely important.

No one could have argued

her into the faith.

No amount of cups of coffee

and sitting down

and laying out

all of the rational

apologetics

for the existence of God

or the truth

of the resurrection

or the claims

of Christ

as fulfillments

of prophecy.

No one sitting down

and laying all of that out

would have

I would think

convinced Joy

to give up

her atheism.

She couldn't

be argued

into faith.

She needed to be

humbled into faith.

She had to be humbled

into faith.

She had to come

face to face

with her own helplessness.

She had to see herself

as spiritually poor.

And then Jesus began

to look like good news.

She had to see herself

as spiritually blind

and then Jesus'

message began

to have relevance

for her.

It's only at that point

that the reality

of Jesus

becomes plain to see.

Now this is why

in terms of implications

some people

maybe some people

in this room

remain in unbelief.

The problem

I would suggest

for some of us

who remain in unbelief

is not primarily

intellectual.

I'm not saying

there's not a place

for intellectual arguments.

I'm not saying

there's not a place

for rational argument

and apologetics.

And anybody

who has seriously looked

you will discover

that there are

incredible

thoughtful

compelling

arguments

for the truth

of the things

that we believe

as Christians.

Absolutely.

There's incredible

compelling evidence

that the resurrection

happened.

There's incredible

compelling evidence

that this is true.

But I would suggest

that for some people

who remain in unbelief

the primary issue

is not intellectual.

You're not going

to be able

to be argued

into the faith.

Your primary obstacle

is spiritual.

It's a heart

posture issue.

And God may love you

so much

and want you

so much

that he does things

in your life

that humble you.

That he does things

in your life

that bring you

face to face

with your finitude,

your limitations.

that he brings

a situation

into your life

that causes you

to feel helpless

because he's trying

to get through to you.

He's standing

right in front of you

saying,

I am here,

the savior,

the fulfillment

of all of God's promises

and all he wants

is for you

to recognize him

instead of throwing

him off a cliff.

Right?

So that's the first thing.

Second implication

is this.

I do believe

this is probably

partly why the church,

not just our church

but the church,

is filled with people

who have grown up

with Christianity,

filled with people

who have grown up

around these truths,

who have heard the gospel

a thousand times,

they've gone to Sunday school,

they've gone to youth group,

they've gone to the camps,

they've done all of it,

they've heard it

thousands of times.

But it's never really

connected with them

on a deep level.

You know,

it's never really penetrated.

I think the reason

is because maybe

you've heard the gospel

a thousand times

but it's never really

moved you

because you've never

really been confronted

with your need

for a savior.

You've never really

come face to face

with the truth

of your own condition.

In the UVA med school,

probably like all med schools,

one of the ways

that they train students

is by having actors

come in

and they'll give the actor

a medical condition

and then the actor

has to act out

the symptoms

of the condition

and then they bring

the med students in

to do an exam

and their goal

is to try to correctly

diagnose the condition

that's being portrayed.

And a few years back

at UVA,

an actor went in

and he was told

that he was supposed

to pretend to have

an abdominal aortic aneurysm.

And here's the symptoms

and you need to pretend

like you have this.

And then the med student

began to examine this actor

and the med student

discovered that,

in fact,

the actor actually had

a real abdominal aortic aneurysm.

I mean,

can you imagine

the odds of that?

You go in,

you're randomly

given a condition.

You go in,

you're randomly given

a condition.